Human Rights & Security

From the article:

Another survey showed 42% women were harassed while waiting for public transport. "We have suggested sites for hawkers near bus stops to ensure these areas are not isolated," says Kalpana Viswanath of Gender Inclusive Cities Programme.

The latest official crime statistics confirms what everybody know s about Delhi: that it is India's rape capital. But recent studies show that by tweaking urban design and infrastructure - something as simple as ensuring wider pavements and closing cigarette shops near busstops - could make Delhi safer for women. Other measures, like ensuring safer public transport and busy streets, could come later.

Recall recurring incidents of women being pulled into moving cars and stalked on streets, where wider pavements could offer women an escape route. When women are confronted by a group of men walking towards them on a narrow pavement, they often step onto the road to escape being brushed past, leaving them vulnerable to passing cars and men on two-wheelers. Wider pavements would offer more room to manoeuvre.

Research by Jagori, an organization studying gender and space in Delhi, along with the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, shows that women feel unsafe and have repeatedly reported incidents of sexual harassment on the dug-up, poorly-lit pavements around Delhi University (North Campus). The result: women do not stay late in the library or laboratories, even though these facilities are open in the evening. Improving the infrastructure around the campus would automatically ensure women access these resources.

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From the article:

Welcome to the front lines of the fight to stop child marriage in a country where nearly half of all girls wed before age 18. The weapon of choice: cash.

Lado is part of an innovative program called Apni Beti Apni Dhan, or Our Daughters, Our Wealth. Launched in 1994 by the northern state of Haryana, the program gives poor families 500 rupees ($11, the equivalent of less than half a week’s pay) when a daughter is born, and also deposits money into a savings account. If the girl turns 18 unwed, she is eligible to redeem the bond, worth 25,000 rupees (roughly $500, or one third of an average yearly income). The earliest of the program’s approximately 150,000 enrollees turn 18 next year, offering a rare chance to study whether the program offers a solution other states—and countries—can use.

Whether it can be tied directly to Apni Beti or not, child marriage is on the decline in Haryana, which saw an 18 percent drop in the practice between 1992 and 2006. Haryana community workers say that thus far none of the program’s beneficiaries have been married off by their parents, who know of the program’s promised payout. The girls must sign for the bond, but it is likely their parents will have control of it because of social norms, and most of the girls say they want their parents to use it for their education anyway.

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From the article:

Report gathered by this paper says over 2,000 cases of Gender Based Violence (GBV) have occurred nation-wide during the period January to October 2011. The report, which was compiled by the Ministry of Gender and Development, is released at a time the nation is joining other countries around the world to celebrate 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, which runs from November 25, 2011 through December 10, 2011. The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights.

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